Hi all, I am in the middle of buying bits for my new system, but as I have had the same rig for over five years I am a bit out of touch with all the latest hardware, and know nothing of the latest/best chipsets. All I known is that I need a motherboard for less than £75 and that is must have SATA, AM2 socket with 64bit and have SLI support. A quick look on e-buyer revealed these hopefuls, but I would be greatful for any advice on which is these offers the best bang-for-buck, or if you reccommend another MB entirely at around the same price point. http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=113974 http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=116486 http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=122758 http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=121169 http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=113844 http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=114771 Cheers, James
Assuming you already have the CPU, so you have to go AM2 and can't change to a Core2Duo setup, then I would say any of those should work, I would avoid MSI and Foxconn, my experience with MSI has not been good, and my friend has a Foxconn board and loves it, but I've heard a lot of bad things about them too, so I think you should check out the specific board online.
I have Foxconn's AM2 590SLi board and find it to be absolutely fine - and a lot of reviewers (including bit-tech) rated it highly too. I believe Foxconn had more of a 'budget' reputation a while back, but are doing well in the enthusiast market.
That's the one my friend has, but I don't know if their 570 SLI board is as good as that one, since it is more a budget board.
the 570chipset is supposed to be useless. it was only worth to go for the 590SLi chipset. i'd try and go C2D if you not got any of the parts yet.
Cheers for all the help people - much appreciated. Everybody, including my mate, has said to go with a C2D system, and although I initially dismissed this being a AMD fanboy and not really understanding how a low clock speed could be faster than a high clock speed! However, I have been looking at the C2D following your advice and would spend the extra if it is definitly worth it. I looked at the E6300, which is priced at the highest I can afford. Is this better than getting an AMD AM2 x2 4200+? Also can anyone recommend me a good mobo for around £75 or less that will take this and have SLI? Also what RAM speed is optimal for this system, PC6400? Or can I get away with running slower, thus cheaper RAM? Cheers, James
if i remember correctly, the e6300 beats the 4200 x2 at stock, and then of course the overclocking ability of the e6300 blows the amd's away...im not exactly sure, but i believe the asus p5n-e sli will fit inside your budget. in addition, most mobo's say pc6400, but they will run slower ram just as well...in fact, if you are going to go with slower ram, the e4300 would be a better bet...overclocks better with lower speed ram due to more settings on the mulitplier. and the e4300 is only slightly slower...and its cheaper by about $20 usd...
Cheers for that, that board (p5n-e sli) seems good for me, either that or the Fatality FP-In9 here. I am almost 100% convinced that I should go to C2D now, but regarding the RAM, if the e6300 runs at 1066 FSB then surely I would have to buy PC-8500 RAM which also runs at this. At least I am sure you had to match them back in the DDR days? Or am I wrong? James I just had a thought - this is DDR2! So half of 1066 is 533, which means optimumly (sp) PC-4300 should be used, unless overclocking the FSB?
If you get a Core2Duo, overclocking would be something you would want to do, if not now, you will probably end up meddling with it, especially with a good overclocking board like the P5N-E SLI. You would get more performance out of higher clocked memory, but for light overclocking and still not breaking the bank DDR2-667 would be what you should aim for, as that will let you hit 333FSB and 1:1. Most people will tell you to get DDR2-800, but it would be better to have higher CPU and motherboard then sacrifice them for ram speed, especially if you plan on running at stock and only dabbling with overclocking.
DDR2 800 lets you run at 400fsb 1:1 though & there shouldn't be much of a price difference. The P5N-E can be a bit touchy on RAM though. You might want to look at Crucial Ballistix 5300 3-3-3-12 as it's a bit of a wolf in sheeps clothing - with some volts & slacker timings should get well over DDR2 1000.
